If you didn’t know, New South Wales has been experiencing some unseasonal weather and of course there is aA�downhill race on! In total contrast to the sweltering heat of last weekend’s National Championships’ at Eagle Mountain Bike Park, this weekend looks like it will be wet, wet and wet!
The track here at Awaba has been an unknown for a lot of riders but initial impressions are good. It appears to be well gravity fed, technical and already people are saying it is the best track of the series. Despite the huge amount of rain that has fallen the track appears to be holding up well, the soil getting sticky rather than too slippery.
Most of the ‘big name’ riders were taking it easy today, either not riding or just doing a track walk. Other riders that were practicing, such as Troy Brosnan, gave this explanation, “if I was going to do a track walk and get wet I might as well just ride”. Riders such as Mitch Delfs and Rhys Willemse who didn’t practice today but just did a track walk claimed they are “going to do 12 practice runs tomorrow!”, different strategies for sure.
What was amusing to hear, was ridersA�who are sponsoredA�by goggle manufactures, talking aboutA�getting around the issue of having them fog up when riding. The most unique solution I heard was to take the lenses out completely! As apparently a little mudguard combined with the sticky mud meant there wasn’t much muck flying up into riders’ eyes. This meant the rider still had photos with them representing their sponsor, no fogging issues and didn’t look “gooby” riding without any goggles. So long as they don’t get mud in their eyes I guess that ticks all the boxes!
Tomorrow’s practice and seeding will be interesting with riders trying to learn the track quickly. Troy Brosnan was looking good today punching out the most runs of any rider we saw. Sam Hill was possibly MIA?! we will see tomorrow, until then lets hope this weather improves!
